Get Ready for the launch of our FREE Tool for a Self-Assessment of your Job Search Plan

On Monday at 11 AM PDT in our Weekly Internet Radio Talk Show on LATalkRadio.com, Brad and I will discuss, launch, and describe in detail one of the most powerful tools you’ll probably ever use in your job search planning and preparation.

This Self-Assessment we’ve developed will become one of the most important tools in your entire job search toolkit. You’ll take it at frequent intervals and refer to it constantly in tweaking your job search for exceptional results

I know those are very bold statements. However, Brad and I are very excited about this tool. We’ve been working on it for quite some time. We’ve “field-tested” it with hundreds of candidates – revising, adjusting, and modifying it based on their feedback. We’ve validated over a 3-6 month period that the Job Search Plan Self-Assessment Tool can dramatically reduce the time it takes to find a new job. In some cases, candidates have reduced their job search by 50% or more from the average timeframe most candidates will take at their level.

The Job Search Plan Self-Assessment Tool follows the structure of our Career Success Methodology, described in great detail in our recent book titled “This is NOT the Position I Accepted” and expanded upon in our Job Search Home Study Course.

If you follow our Career Success Methodology — which is the ONLY systematic approach to conducting a job search that has been deeply researched, field-tested with live candidates, and validated for success – you’ll significantly reduce the time it takes to complete your job search.

There are lots of experts out there – resume writers, interview coaches, personal branding experts, job board consultants – however, none of them bring an integrated approach and systematic methodology to the process of conducting a job search.

The Career Success Methodology starts with Day One of your Job Search and takes you through every step of the process to the end-point of negotiating your expectations, resources, compensation, benefits, and long-term opportunity.

If you take this Job Search Plan Self-Assessment, even if you don’t invest or agree with our Career Success Methodology, you’ll still be able to identify the key areas in your job search which still require significant work and improvement.

After just a few minutes, the scoring will reveal why your job search is taking too long, why your job search is stalled, or why your job search is NOT generating the level of job leads, referrals, interviews, and offers you wish you could obtain. Most of these problems stem from making the same job search mistakes over and over again.

Join us Monday on LATalkRadio.com at 11 AM PDT to discuss, comment, and share your insights from the Job Search Plan Assessment Tool. We’ll provide the link to the tool in our LINKEDIN Discussion Group by Monday morning at 8 AM PDT so you’ll have an opportunity to score yourself prior to joining us for the radio show.

In the Radio Show, Brad and I will talk about how the Job Search Plan Self-Assessment Tool will help you overcome the most common Top Ten Job Search Mistakes. We’ll walk you through each of the main scoring categories and talk about steps to improve your job search and reduce the time it takes to find a great opportunity.

Barry

P.S. Join our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group for one of the fastest growing and vibrant job search discussion groups on the Internet

Weekly Job Search Round-up: August 1st-7th

Here is a round-up and review of our blog posts over the past week. Our blog posts have covered the spectrum of job search mistakes, resumes, networking, leveraging social media, and techniques to reduce your job hunt timeframe by at least 50%.

The Top Ten Job Search Mistakes – Are You Guilty?

We explore the most common Top Ten Job Search Mistakes based on research over 25 years. Are you making one or more of these mistakes in your job search?

Un and Under-Employment: What You Don’t Know

Recognize the emotional side of being unemployed in one of the worst job markets we’ve seen in 25 years. We interview of the leading experts on dealing with the emotional side of a job search.

Stay tuned next week as we begin to explore each of the Top Ten Job Search Mistakes and how you can overcome them. Imagine how quickly your job hunt could be over by just avoiding a few of the most common pitfalls to conducting an effective job search.

We will also begin to take an in-depth look at most powerful technique ever used to prepare for any interview question. Using this one preparation technique which is a core element of our Career Success Methdology, you’ll have potential employers almost begging you to come and work for their company.

Barry

Don’t Be “OUTED” In An Interview

A friend CEO recently reminisced about a conversation he had with his executive team. I thought this directly related to so many candidates that I felt compelled to share it with you.

The CEO said to his team, “In order to survive this market without cutting back we must “OUT” our competition. We must, out deliver, out perform, out service, out sell, out market, out price, out satisfy, out prepare and out them with every thing we do. We can’t leave anything to chance. If we don’t, many of our team will be out and ultimately we may be out.”

WOW, pretty powerful stuff. So how does this relate to you – the candidate.

You have to “out” your competition too, or as the CEO said, “You will be out.” In this case, out of the running for the job you not only want, but need.

So how do you “out” your competition? Two words, “Proper Preparation.” This in my opinion is the all time biggest reason candidates fail. The optimum word is “PROPER.” I didn’t say candidates don’t attempt preparation. I believe they do. The problem is that the preparation is so superficial and vague it is worthless. (See blog entry on “Where’s Wes – Not Waldo).

Here are a few tips on how to properly prepare:

1. Proper preparation is NOT about researching every “trivial pursuit” fact about the company since it started in 1950. Good stuff to know, but when was the last time in an interview you were asked, “Tell me everything you know about the company?” I suggest never. Instead prepare for the questions you will be asked.
2. Proper preparation is writing out complete and detailed answers to commonly asked questions. In case you missed it, writing out. Just to stress the point, writing out.
3. Practice, practice, and then more practice. Just like all professional speakers, entertainers, professional sports players, and performers you must practice. They practice so much that it looks easy, unrehearsed, unscripted, succinct, points clearly articulated and engaging. Few candidates are good enough to wing it.
4. Did I mention writing out the answers to the most commonly asked questions?
5. List multiple accomplishments for every position. Multiple because an accomplishment for one company may not be an accomplishment in another. Accomplishments MUST include quantifiable results. Forgetting this part would be like forgetting the punch line in a joke.
6. Video yourself in a mock interview. This will be a real eye opener for many.

If you want to “out” your competition you must be so well prepared and practiced that you stand out. You can’t leave anything to chance.

Final note for all of those now thinking, “I already know all this stuff.” Great, but are you doing it? We all know a lot of things, the problem is doing them. The bigger problem is doing them at such a high level of skill that they look easy.

To help you “out” your competition we provide a wealth of free resources and tools. Our free audio library is full of helpful subjects, the articles are free to download, our Linkedin discussion group expands the wealth of resources to other qualified people, and we constantly post new stuff to help you “out” the competition. Consider bookmarking our candidate FREE Resource page and check back at least weekly.

Our comprehensive job search workbook is FREE to read and implement the preparation tools and templates included. This will ensure you have the right preparation process. With a reader rating 4.25 out of 5 it is certainly worth considering.

If this was helpful please share it with your friends so they also benefit.

We encourage comments and look forward to your thoughts.

Put On Your Sales Hat in Your Job Search

I just conducted one of our regular weekly Internet Radio Talk Shows. You can download the new audio broadcast from our website in our FREE Audio Library.

In this program we discussed the following topics and took questions from our audience regarding their job search issues about “Putting On Their Sales Hat”:

Plan Their Work

1. Networking Plan
2. Target Plan
3. Group Participation Plan
4. Research – hot industry’s/goggling hiring managers

Numbers Count!

1. Well-Prepared to being their sales efforts
2. Documents lined up
3. Details/Research/Comparative Information – armed with right info
4. Rehearsed and polished

The Interview/Presentation

1. Quick Rapport/First Impressions
2. Solution Selling – what’s your pain (should know this in advance – top 4 typical problems/issues for that role
3. Enthusiasm/Energy – show your passion

Follow-up after the interview

1. Thank You Notes
2. Sending relevant information
3. Networking
4. Finding backdoors

We’ve got a wealth of tools on our website to help you Put on Your Sales Hat. Check out our Candidate Product Library – where we’ve taken this concept and built a structured workbook, templates, and audio programs.

Take a look at our Job Search Service Catalog where we’ve developed a series of coaching and assessment tools to determine if you’re effectively applying the concepts and methodology behind “Putting On Your Sales Hat”.

Finally, join our LinkedIn Discussion Group which provides a vibrant forum for posing questions and getting answers from other candidates conducting a job search and how their applying each of the key steps of our Career Success Methodology.

Barry

photo credit JL McVay

Does the Hiring Manager Believe You?

Although we might not like to admit it, most hiring decisions occur through likability, rapport, and personal chemistry. Not only do you have to prove that you’ve got “the right stuff”, you’ve got to market it/sell it with enough enthusiasm and excitement that the hiring manager really believes it.

How do you overcome this natural tendency to focus on first impressions in the hiring process? One major technique is to do a better job in preparing to interview – this reduces and eliminates the employer bias toward style, personality, and presentation.

We identify this preparation as one of the five key elements of a successful job search.

You can also learn more about limiting the effect of first impressions and reducing the influence of personality and presentation by following out Internet Radio Show where every week we explore a different element of conducting an effective job search. The past programs can be downloaded from our radio show library.

Here’s a post from one of the many blogs I follow that offers an additional perspective:

From Amber Shaw of the Geniusopia Blog

Are You a Believable Candidate?

You need to tell them you’re excited about the job because you want to do this kind of work and work for a company like this.  You need to tell them you’re going to be fantastic in this  job because your experience gives you this list of skills.  You need to say this because if you don’t, it’s fundamentally implying that it’s not true.  So you say it.

Except … if you say that you want this job because you want to work at this company but you really want the job so you have a job, they can tell.  If you say you’d be absolutely fantastic in this job because of your whatever but you really mean that you’ll show up and do a good job for awhile and then possibly start slacking off, they can tell.

If you don’t believe it, then they won’t believe it either.

The solution is to only apply for jobs for which these statements are already true.  Just because you fulfill some or all of the requirements for a job does not mean it’s the right job for you.  Just because you want to work somewhere does not mean it’s the right job for you.

It’s the right job for you if you fulfill the requirements, if you want to work there and if you think you’ll be successul there.  Yes, that does narrow down the jobs you apply to, but it also saves you time and means you’ll end up in a job you actually want.

http://geniusopia.com/2009/05/are-you-a-believable-candidate/

Barry

Know When The Interview Starts

Many years ago we completed a search(to view current open searches CLICK HERE) for a CFO of a major healthcare company in Orange County, CA. The CFO later retained us to conduct a VP Finance search for him. In the middle of the search he called and said, “So, I was in my office and just happened to look out my window. To my amazement I see this guy with a surfboard hanging out the back of his car and a big dog in the back seat. If that wasn’t weird enough, he got out of the car and started changing from a bathing suit to a business suit right in the parking lot. I started laughing and thought nothing more of it, until a few minutes later my assistant tells me she is going down to bring up my next interview. Guess who walks in my door.”
The CFO felt this person showed such poor judgment that he wouldn’t hire him regardless of his qualifications.

The interview begins as soon as you enter the parking lot.

We have a complete library of audio lessons for you to download and listen to on a variety of job hunting topics. To browse the files that will help you the most CLICK HERE

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